Mercury’s great display before dawn

All five naked-eye planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — put on nice shows these November nights. Mars dominates the late-evening sky as the planet prepares for opposition and peak visibility next month. It comes into view an hour or two after Jupiter slides gracefully into twilight. Mercury, Venus, and Saturn spread across the eastern sky before dawn. The two outer gas giants, Uranus and Neptune, remain easy binocular targets.